


Too Few in Number

by eraofstories



Series: Era's Festival of Lights Fest 2020 fics [1]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Can be read as preslash, Gen, No editing we die like mne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28004958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eraofstories/pseuds/eraofstories
Summary: In 1899 Hanukkah sneaks up on David Jacobs. That doesn't stop him from inviting Jack to celebrate with his family, and Jack draws some parallels between the story of Hanukkah and their strike the past summer.
Relationships: David Jacobs & Jack Kelly, David Jacobs & Sarah Jacobs
Series: Era's Festival of Lights Fest 2020 fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051151
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: Festival of Lights Fest





	Too Few in Number

**Author's Note:**

> The holiday dates are accurate according to hebcal.com, but I don't know about the school stuff, I wasn't able to find an academic calendar from NYC for 1899.

In 1899 Hanukkah sneaks up on David, just like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur did. In his defense, it’s been a busy fall for him, because he’s been trying to get caught up with his classmates who didn't spend several months out of school working to support their families while also continuing to sell a few afternoons a week and most Sundays. And besides that, David is pretty sure that the night of the 26th is basically as early as Hanukkah ever can start, so it's not his fault that the holiday is already practically right on top of him by the time he remembers that it's coming. 

It's Mama who brings it to his attention that it’s almost time, asking him on November nineteenth, a week ahead of time if his friend Jack or any of the other boys will be joining them for dinner during the holiday. Jack’s not the only one who has made appearances at the Jacobs’ table in the months since the strike, and his mother and father for all that they were initially a bit uncertain about dirty-faced boys who followed David and Les home every so often have taken to them well. 

David thinks that it’s because his mother is always happy to have another person to fuss over. David, Les, and Sarah have all agreed that if it gets her to worry about them a little bit less it can only be a good thing, although none of them are convinced that she actually does. David is beginning to suspect that his mother has an endless well of concern that she can draw from, but it warms his heart when he sees the quiet awe on Crutchy’s face when Esther hears him sneeze and within about thirty seconds has whisked him into a chair and piled a blanket on top of him, telling him it’s good luck that she was already making chicken soup, because if he doesn’t have some of hers he’s sure to catch cold. His father on the other hand seems to be enjoying the chance to tell all the same stories that David, Les, and Sarah have heard at least a hundred times before to a new audience who don’t roll their eyes nearly so much. The other newsies listen with the kind of rapt attention that David privately thinks is going to give his father outsized ideas about how interesting he is, when David is pretty sure that it’s just that his friends are all in awe of the fact that the Jacobs parents are kind and happy to share what they have even though it’s not a lot. David sort of thinks that outside of Kloppman most of them have maybe never met an adult who wasn’t trying to cheat them. 

The fact that it’s pretty common for his friends to leave at least a few pennies, and sometimes a whole nickel somewhere that Esther and Mayer (and David and Sarah and Les) won’t find it until after they’ve left makes David a little bit more sure that they haven’t had enough people try to actually take care of them for their own sakes, even though they’ve at least stopped trying to give it directly to mama and papa, who had been vaguely scandalized the first time Jack had tried. Jack had sort of stumbled over the words, and tried to insist that it was only fair, explaining that he could make his own way and it was fine, and “after all, papes’re selling better than ever with my new partners!” Mayer had had none of that, but after Jack had headed off to the lodging house for the night David had found that there was more money in the pile of his earnings for the day, but the same amount that Jack had tried to give them. 

All of that is to say that when Esther asks David if any of the boys will be coming for Hanukkah he isn’t really sure what the answer is. Jack usually comes by at least once a week, and when he thinks about the idea of Jack in their tenement as they light the oil lamp with the smell of frying potatoes heavy in the air David finds that he wants that. So he tells Esther that he’s going to invite Jack to the first night, and if there’s an extra spring in his step as he leaves school on Monday and heads over to buy fifty copies of the afternoon edition before finding Jack at their favorite selling spot, well. He’s pretty sure he did a good job on his math test, and the few leaves left on the trees are beautiful, and he’s a little bit excited to invite Jack. 

The end result of this is that David has a week to prepare for Jack to be in his home on the first night of Hanukkah, eating latkes with David’s family and trying very hard to understand when Les explains the rules of dreidel to him, while periodically shooting panicked looks at both David and Sarah, who looked at each other the first time and silently concluded that this was the best opportunity they were going to get all year to not have to play the most boring game on earth with their ten year old brother who they loved very much, before turning twin smirks on Jack. 

Sarah had then smiled sweetly and on her way to help mama with something in the kitchen whispered in Jack’s ear how much fun Les was clearly having with the chance to teach Jack something for a change. David is putting a lot of effort into not laughing hysterically as Jack’s pile of raisins dwindles. He’s considered taking mercy on Jack and informing him that Les is lying to him about what the letters mean, but he also kind of wants to see how long it takes Jack to notice that Les has described at least seven different rules even though there are only four sides to the dreidel. 

He’s about to take pity on Jack when it turns out that what Sarah was doing was getting the plate that is piled high with rugelach, and so if he decides to pay attention to that instead, well, who can blame him? 

It’s a little while later and the whole lot of them are sitting around, full and happy in the light of the menorah, the dreidel put aside as Les slowly starts to drift off, and Jack turns to David and says “So, uh, what’s this one about? It seems happier than that one that happened back in September after the New Year one?” 

David laughs, because it’s still funny remembering how awkward Jack had been when he’d tried to wish them a Happy Yom Kippur only to get a long explanation of how that didn’t make sense from Les. “Yeah, this isn’t like that one. It’s about when Judah Maccabee and his men defeated the Greeks who had taken over the Temple and then rededicated it to God.” David explains Antiochus, and the miracle of the oil, and the miracle of the win most of all. “Because the oil is the part that really feels like such a miracle, because there wasn’t enough to last the whole time it would take to make more, and they’d have to do the rededication all over again if the flame went out, since it’s supposed to be eternal, but I’ve always thought that the harder part was winning the war, because they had to do it themselves, even though God was on their side I guess. Because it was just this little band of Jews, and no one thought they could win, Judah said they had to try, because they couldn’t just let the greeks destroy everything that we were, you know? They should be allowed to worship at the temple, and they shouldn’t have to bow to Antiochus just because he was this greek king.” 

Jack’s smiling at him, the way he sometimes does when David (who always feels like Davey in these moments, when Jack looks at him like this) gets going, talking about something he cares about. “So he told them that Antiochus had to respect their rights? Sounds like another rabble rouser I know, a lot closer to home.” 

David splutters. “What, aw, c’mon, Jackie, that was different, and I didn’t do anything really, I just talked a little, and I didn’t even do most of that, that was you-”

“David,” says Sarah, and now she’s smirking at him, and David feels that this is unfair, and would like to go back to when they were both smirking at Jack, which seemed much better in his opinion, “He’s got a point, really. You saw that people weren’t being treated fairly, and even though at first the odds seemed impossible who managed to convince them that it was worth fighting back. I can read perfectly well, so even if I didn’t believe the stories I’ve heard from the boys, I know that you were the one who convinced them that it was worth trying that first day when none of the other neighborhoods showed up.” 

“Yep,” agreed Jack, popping the ‘P’ obnoxiously, “that’s our Davey - able to talk everyone up so good they believe they can do just about anything. And then do it.” 

And it’s an oversimplification of everything that happened this summer, a serious oversimplification in David’s opinion, but he’s willing to admit that there are parallels there, and he smiles a little helplessly, as his father chuckles and claps him on the shoulder with a pride that makes David as warm as it did this summer when Mayer was bragging to friends at shul about how his boys were striking for fair pay. And that night, as he’s falling asleep he can’t help but think back to his little-boy dreams of being brave and bold like Judah Maccabee and think that he really did get closer to them than he’d ever really expected.


End file.
